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Monday, August 28, 2017

A Sad Tale: What Happens When You Don't Heed The (Excellent) Warnings

I have verified this is a bona fide Twitter account. It will break your heart even though the first of these tweets is -- to meteorologists -- extremely frustrating. I am leaving off the name. They are posted in chronological order.

Friday:

Oh---kay.

When she could have been evacuating, with just hours until the flood, this tweet was posted. As far as I can tell, it was her only tweet Saturday.

There was still time to evacuate.

Things go downhill very, very quickly Sunday morning:

Then, calamity ensues:

She wraps things up with.

If this woman heeded the storm warnings, she would be someplace warm with her most important possessions and her loved ones. Tragic. I do empathize with her in one way. A non-meteorologist news reporter she quoted wrote, "I'd be skeptical of the maps calling for extreme rainfall." I do not try to do brain surgery. Why can't others leave weather forecasting to meteorologists!?

As I wrote previously, the quality of warnings of extreme weather have outstripped the ability of society and decision makers to use those warnings. That has to change.

2 comments:

Mike...you have done an outstanding Job reporting accurate meteorological info. I like your idea about a National Disaster Coordination Center to link the Feds to the States to the local governments. As for updating, only do what you can.

My SIL & BIL are in Beaumont. The day before the storm they said they were staying and were ok. He also said that the forecasters aren't always telling the truth....fake news you know. When my husband called his sister Sunday, she said they had 18", had 2 generators going, pumping out the pool because it was overflowing from the rain. They had sandbags at every opening and they had the cars gassed up and ready to go if need be. Add to that 6 2-week old dachshund puppies and a momma who's scared of storms. I can't understand people who don't or won't pay attention to the forecast. We're at the beginning of a heat wave and it's going to be miserable, but at least it's not raining.